Current Events Portfolio

Post navigation

Bisma Zaman, Blog Entry #4

Society is inevitably changing. In today’s society one of the larger issues is gay rights and the struggle with discrimination in the workplace and ultimately throughout society based on sexual orientation. Even the Walt Disney Company has contributed in the effort for gay rights. Through Disney’s VoluntEARS program, Disney allows employees to do volunteer work in exchange for cash donations to the charities of their choice such as the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). While the Boys Scouts of America voted in the previous year to allow gay youth to enter, they still have a ban on gay Scout leaders. By 2015, Disney plans to stop funding the BSA because groups become ineligible to receive Disney funding if they “discriminate in the provision of services unlawfully or in a manner inconsistent with Disney’s policies on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, national origin, age, marital status, mental or physical ability, or sexual orientation” (Disney).

Disney, with other major companies such as Major League Soccer, UPS, and Intel seem to be making a larger statement about human rights and equality. The BSA creates a foundation for discrimination and sends the message that not everyone is equal. The co-founder of Eagle Scouts and Scouts for Equality, Zach Wahls, stated, “We’re never happy to see Scouting suffer as a result of the BSA’s anti-gay policy, but Disney made the right decision to withhold support until Scouting is fully inclusive”(CNN). Wahls demonstrates that acceptance and inclusiveness is a vital part of Scouting and that the BSA seems to be taking away from that principle.

The BSA is not the only company with an anti-gay policy. Many companies and people in the workplace discriminate based on sexual orientation. It directly correlates to our government because many people use the Bill of Rights to argue against it and for it, specifically with the First and Fourteenth Amendments. It demonstrates that the leeway for interpretation within the Constitution and the Bill of Rights can also be detrimental and leaves room for further debate.